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Microsoft Windows 7 Hits the Streets on Oct. 22

Microsoft announces it will launch Windows 7, its latest operating system, on Oct. 22. Microsoft needs a successful operating system to eliminate bad memories of Windows Vista and to help mend its bottom line, which has been ravaged by the global recession. Rumors abound that Windows 7 will also be ported onto mininotebooks, aka netbooks.

Microsoft announced June 2 that Windows 7, the operating system designed to replace Windows Vista, will roll out for general commercial availability on Oct. 22.

Bill Veghte, senior vice president for Microsoft Windows, was quoted in a June 2 Wall Street Journal article as saying, "We feel confident that we will deliver Windows 7 with our partners on Oct. 22."

Veghte also mentioned that Microsoft hardware partners would be "betting heavily" on the new operating system. PC makers such as Dell are certainly looking at the operating system as one way to reverse sluggish sales in the midst of a global recession.

Windows was responsible for roughly $20 billion in Microsoft sales in 2008, or roughly a third of its overall revenue. However, for the fiscal third quarter ended March 31, the company reported a 6.5 percent year-over-year decrease in revenues, its first-ever quarterly revenue decline, putting pressure on the company to deliver a considerable OS success.

Further reading

Vista, which rolled out in January 2007, encountered considerable problems from the outset, to the point where vendors started exercising downgrade rights to put Windows XP on machines they sold to consumers.

Despite rumors that Microsoft 7 will be adapted for mininotebooks, known popularly as netbooks, Microsoft also seems determined to install the operating system on as many traditional PCs as possible, which are likely to provide higher margins.